[Resolved] Adding Child Theme mid-development

Home Forums Support [Resolved] Adding Child Theme mid-development

Home Forums Support Adding Child Theme mid-development

  • This topic has 7 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by Leo.
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  • #294895
    Rod

    Hey Tom … My WP site programming knowledge is an ever-growing thing.

    I’m currently developing a site with GP-Premium (GPP) in a staging directory on my hosting account (Bluehost), away from the live site which is up and running. I’ll eventually be updating the live site with the new GPP design once that’s finished.

    Child Themes: this just crossed my radar and I haven’t been using one up to now. A lot of design decisions have already gone into customizing GPP (both via the WP customizer, and Elementor).

    I’ve seen some easy 1-click plugin’s like “Child Themify” to create a child theme, but I assume these are created before development work has begun – I’m mid-stream.

    From what I understand, theme updates can cause problems to a site and child themes are the protection against a theme update altering a site’s operations or look.

    If I create a child theme for GPP what would I need to do to capture all the design decisions already made and make sure the child theme has them, before continuing to finish the GPP design working on the child-theme?

    I saw an earlier post of yours with a link to [generatepress_child.zip] … would it just be a matter of installing that and then copying in the [functions.php] & [style.css] files from the staging area GPP work already done?

    Thanks for the help!

    #295010
    Leo
    Staff
    Customer Support

    Hi Rod,

    This page should answer all the concerns you have: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/using-child-theme/

    Let us know if you have more questions 🙂

    #295048
    Rod

    Hey Leo, thanks for the reply.

    OK so I checked out the link you sent … just 2 quick questions:

    I saw this:

    “Will I lose my changes when I add a child theme?

    If you’ve only used the theme options in the Customizer, you won’t lose any of your changes.”

      Question 1)

    My concern is that the site is already in development: I’ve used Customizer, I’ve also used Elementor too. So there is a bunch of data already put into the site design I don’t want to lose.

    //

    Your documentation begins:

    “A child theme is a theme that uses the core “parent” theme files, unless one of those files (in the root directory of the parent theme) are copied and added to the child theme. In that case, the copied file is used on your website so you can make changes to it without touching the parent theme.

      This is useful

    as when updates are released for the parent theme, WordPress deletes the directory and uploads the new one. Any changes you made to the parent theme files are discarded and replaced with the newly updated files.

      Question 2)

    It’s not clear to me if “this is useful” is referring to using a child theme, or if “this is useful” is saying – “YES” you should copy the files from the parent to the child directory to protect against future updates to the theme deleting data. And if “YES” you should copy the files, which ones?

    Hope I’m being clear, this is learning-curve stuff 🙂

    R

    #295056
    Tom
    Lead Developer
    Lead Developer

    1. Your GP and Elementor settings will be safe. The only changes that can be lost are coding changes you make to the core theme files.

    2. You should only copy files from the parent theme into a child theme if you’ll be making significant coding changing to them. If you’re not doing at custom coding, you don’t need a child theme.

    Hope this helps 🙂

    #295060
    Rod

    oh, I see … ok, so if the site is designed via Customizer, and Elementor – and just includes whatever plugins I end up using (sliders, testimonials, etc) – future updates to the GP-Premium theme shouldn’t affect the site look or operation.

    It’s just if I dig into the actual core GPP theme files and start changing things in there that things will get lost with future updates to the GPP theme.

    If I’m understanding that right, yeah, don’t see the need for a child theme. I’m not planning on digging into the actual theme files themselves. Am I right in my understanding?

    #295061
    Leo
    Staff
    Customer Support

    Hi Rod,

    Yup all of that won’t be erased through updates.

    Doesn’t sound like you need a child theme.

    If you end up with a tons of custom CSS then you can start one at that point no problem.

    Let us know if this answers your question.

    #295067
    Rod

    Sounds good … got it. Time to click the ‘resolved’ drop down! Thanks …

    #295268
    Leo
    Staff
    Customer Support

    Glad we could help!

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